80M
Bus Model Shop have just opened their seventh shop and this
is located
at Shop 7, 5/F APM Plaza, Millennium City 5, 418 Kwun Tong
Road,
Kwun Tong, Kowlooon.

As promised, a
further batch of photos from
Donald MacRae has been added to the Xtra
pages of the site. These feature KCRC buses at Tuen Mun.

I have received
an unconfirmed report that
the second KMB Enviro 500, on Route No 1, is scheduled for release in
late
April.

Photograph courtesy and
copyright ofDavid Rowe

David Rowe, who
recently visited Hong Kong
has kindly provided the above photograph, which shows an advert 'Lets
shop
@ MongKok - Langham Place', carried by a number of buses. It is
apparently
very popular with bus fans, so much so that 80M shops had a 4mm version
on sale (presumably as 80M have a shop in Langham Place) but apparently
all were out of stock!

25th
March 2005

Photograph courtesy and
copyright of Donald
MacRae

The Xtra
pages of the site have tonight been updated with a special photographic
feature based on an evening at Mong Kok earlier this month. All were
taken
by Donald MacRae during his recent visit and I am sure you will agree
they
are quite stunning. If you would like to see more of Donald's
photography,
he has his own Fotopic site which features a selection of transport
related
pictures taken around the UK, Hong Kong, China and Malta - this can be
found at VictoryGuy's Photo Gallery.
A further update is planned in the next few days featuring some more of
Donald's photos.

Pictured above
is the second 10.3 metre Leyland
Olympian (39102)
from Cars Workshop, this model featuring BL1 in the predominantly cream
livery of KMB. The model is on route number 69X to Tin Shui Estate and
is limited to 2,000 pieces.

Just released in
Hong Kong is this resin
Guy Arab Mk V, in China Motor Bus livery, from Hong Kong Model Co.
(8003A).

I am reliably
informed that KMB are to shortly
issue a model of ECW bodied Leyland Olympian BL1, in predominantly
cream
livery. The public light buses from Best Choose are not expected to be
released until April.

Following last
month's news about 'The Near
Definitive List', I can confirm that this is now available. For more
details,
follow the link.

10th
March 2005

As expected following the
Chinese New Year,
no model news to report.

I recently
discovered that a good number
of my photos had been lifted from my site and used, without my
knowledge
or permission, by a model retailer. Although an apology was forthcoming
very quickly, it has taken almost a month for these photos to be
removed.
I will not name the retailer in question for fear of fulfilling the
saying
'any publicity is good publicity'. The retailer does have a double page
ad in the April edition of a diecast model magazine. It is
very frustrating
when I have to buy my models, use my fairly expensive camera which was
bought specifically to photograph the models, find the time to actually
photograph them, edit and upload them to the site, only for someone,
who
is out to make a profit, to just come along and steal them. If you come
across my photos being used on any site, please let me know.

Of late I have
been spending more time sat
at my PC, which it not always a good thing! As a result, I recently
took
a weeks break (the lack of News during this time was helpful!) during
which
time I considered various options. One of these was to abandon the Xtra
pages of the site, thus allowing me to concentrate solely on the
models.
Another was to discontinue updating and maintaining various websites I
had set up for others - this has unfortunately happened. Before making
a final decision regarding the removal of the Xtra pages, perhaps you
can
let me know whether you actually find them useful or not. Despite this,
I have tonight updated the Xtra
page!